Hey guys, So I am purchasing the New xcarve tomorrow, that will also be my first ever CNC/XCARVE. Most of the work I plan to do is with carbon Fiber, so just wondering if anyone else here has had much to do with it, and what bit they used?
Diamond-cut (sometimes called chip breaker).
MAKE SURE you wear breathing protection.
I plan to have the carbon secured in a shallow container of water, that will keep the bit cool and also remove most of the dust involved.
Also any recommendation on a good place to buy those bits?
Burrs from this guy:
http://stores.ebay.com/CARBIDE-PLUS/_i.html?_nkw=burr&submit=Search&_sid=2877033
With that’s allot of bits. What pack do you recommend?
Bit size depends on the project, I like to use the biggest bit the project allows. For example if I need to make holes that are 1/32" then the bit will be dictated by that constraint. A bigger bit will allow faster cutting and less likely to break from handling. With a smaller bit you can nest parts closer, which might be a good thing with the price of carbon plate these days.
Regarding safety, carbon dust is not a carcinogen (it’s not asbestos) but using a dust mask at least is a good idea, I’m not sure I would want to do a water bath with a Dewalt 611 it will blow water mist everywhere. vacuum would be better in my opinion.
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They’re not cheap, but Toolstoday have a bunch of bits designed specifically for cutting carbon fibre, but you probably need to use them quite a bit to justify the cost. http://tools.toolstoday.com/search?w=Carbon%20fiber
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That is a good point! Maybe I will have to invest in the suck dust boot!
Carbon fiber has been known to short out motors. See section 3 here;
http://www.carbonfiber.gr.jp/english/material/safety.html
And #5 here;
http://www.monash.edu/ohs/information-and-documents/workshop-safety/carbon-fibre-composites-ohs-information-sheet
any idea how to prevent this from happening to the router?
Believe it or not I actually reached out to several places that work with carbon fiber today for you. They both told me that in their cutting rooms (where they use a computer) the computer is in a sealed box which has forced clean air injected. You could not do this with a router. You’d be better off with your water idea and simply try to find a way to seal the bottom of the router from any splash up. There is a technology called Liquipel (https://www.liquipel.com) which would make your router completely waterproof, but as you might expect it is costly. Their website has more information about the process, but I’d look into other solutions first. A rubber boot of some kind should work. If it were me I’d use a water (or air) cooled spindle instead of the Dewalt 611. Much easier to seal.
Might be the best advise you can get… Stay away carbon fiber for zillion different reasons, beginning your health risk. Try different project which your machine can tolerate, simple dust collection and mask involves. If you’re looking for advanture, jump off the cliff without wings.
The chipbreakers from Drillman1 are what I use as well.
1/8" (.1250") CHIPBREAKER CARBIDE ROUTER BURRS, FT Kyocera Tycom
For the smaller cuts I use these:
1/16" (.0625") DIAMOND CUT CARBIDE ROUTER BURRS, FT W RINGS Kyocera Tycom
I also use these bits to do my M3 drills:
NEW 3.00mm (.1181") Printed Circuit Board Drills (PCB)
As Gary stated, size depends on the job and I like to use the biggest one suitable. For my perimeter cuts and burr work I tend to use 1/8 as I just don’t want to buy bigger and they work fine.
I mostly cut parts for drone frames and these bits work great. I’m using the Dewalt 611 and the Kent CNC Dust Boot mated with a craftsman shopvac, vacuuming through a Dust Deputy. Early on I did attempt with a full breather, rubber gloves, and covering the rest of my body to chase the router around with the shopvac hose. Do not do that, its such a mess and not worth it. Using a good dust boot and vacuum is fine to get you going.
Good luck!
And you haven’t had any issues with the dust?
No.
Remember too, the Dewalt 611 provides positive air pressure out of the bottom in to the cutting area that gets things a bit riled up. The vacuum system them sucks that all up, seemingly quite effectively. I haven’t taken it apart to se if there is carbon dust in there I should wipe off but I also don’t think I’m too concerned about it at this point considering how effective the dust collection seems to be so far.
just blow the 611 out every couple projects, if you dont have a compressor (get one) just use the “canned air” for dusting computer keyboards and whatnot.
the carbon dust isn’t much different than the dust the brushes make
hey guys I use a carbide bit with precision collet I make my own carbon and would suggest changing the feed rate to equal exact time of finish… you want to go very slow … and take even layers and very little each pass